Did anyone else do NOTHING with the £250 Child Trust Fund

[WarblingEttie]

I just left it where it was and need to find out where it is as DS turns 18 on December 🤔

What did everyone else do?

Must be if its over a certain amount. Ds rang about his on the Friday and the money was in his account by the Monday

I have 2 younger dc who didn't get anything so I should really look into something for them but don't know where to start

Nothing here. DD wad 18 at the start of the year and got just under £700.

@BoogieBoogieWoogie

But how much time is left to go?
You can be proactive and move it? Perhaps into stocks and shares ISA if you are happy to leave it , why not take a punt if there are a few year's left to go?
I am in no way financial advisor but I would move it to jisa and buy Scottish mortgage with it.
It's on sale at the moment.

Even if you don't do that you can move it and put it into a steady index trackers?
Why be passive?

That's interesting @Ziegfeld - who knew we had a nudge unit!

Interestingly, in the 2010 election Labour wanted the scheme to continue as was, the LibDems wanted to scrap it, and the Tories wanted it to focus only on the poorest one third of families and those with disabled children

That's probably one of the few times I think the Tories were right!

@Ziegfeld

I agree.

We didn't have any spare money to add to dd1 when we got the initial 250.

Df invested it and I vaguely remember it going below 250 because it was fhe thick of the crash and fhen it jumped to over £800!

We couldn't contribute then moved it to a jisa where some inheritance went.

Dd2 didn't get anything from the government so we put the same in for her and they both have juniors ISAs stock and share with a platform.

I'm really trying to teach them both about money now!
I definitely won't just leave them until 18 and just wonder what they will do.

I'm showing them investments even the 9 year old understand the pitfalls of investing in one company only.

They have a stock ISA but also a small amount in a cash one ( which has performed dismally) but I'm expecting the cash ISA to go on a car, lesson's etc.and the large sum to their life capital to invest/flat.

It will be spoken of as for that purpose.

I think the problem is that 1000 isn't that much to an 18 year old even one without money. It's small enough to splurge.

Whereas 8 grand they can spend a bit and save or do something with it.

I certainly won't be passive however on money front and I'm trying to train them with their own bank cards and account now.

There is a clear difference between those who had it in cash ISAs and also those who invested it.

@Itsokay2020

I don't know what forssester is or what it's invested in

However with our index funds which are mainly vanguard and mainly invested in a little of everything, we are buying now.

They are on sale.

Dollar cost averaging. You buy more for your money when the markets are low.
Definitely don't cash in or move it and loose it whilst market is low!
This is what they do and they always bounce back higher!

@Ziegfeld
" Widened inequality because the wealthy turned 250 into 30k"

Yes but that's because the wealthy seem to know and understand abuse investing.

It's clear that some people on here don't even understand the difference between a stocks and shares investment, and a bank giving basic interest rates.

Among my closet friends I've gently tried to encourage them ( one a sahm with no savings) to start a sipp at least

If this was the intention, I think it's misguided. Children and teenagers can't really process things that are that far ahead. To them, the total increasing is completely meaningless if they can't access it or do anything with it. So why would they be motivated to save when saving is essentially just chucking money into a black hole that will be accessible at some endlessly far away point in the future?

I encouraged DS1 to save by giving him his own savings account which he could put money into and I topped up (to teach him about interest) at a much higher interest level than a bank would give, because when you have less than £100 in savings, an APR of 2% or something would give you less than 1p - what's the point in that to a child? So I would add 5% to the total every month, so that he could see it growing. This has done more for him in terms of understanding/valuing savings than the CTF ever could have. I also talk about our family finances and show him how I budget and plan for emergencies.

I would agree with this (I assume "abuse" is a random autocorrect?)

I don't really understand the difference between different accounts; I've never had enough money to put into one so why would I?

I'm sure I could understand it if I put effort and energy into researching it but why would I do that? I don't know the differences between different sports cars either. I don't want to buy one so I have never researched it.

Oh ffs just WHHHYYYYY do people comment with stuff like this 😫😫

Exactly Bertie, that's the misconceptions.

Some people here said they added to it ( stocks I assume) only at the start and they have a few grand now.

It's the time that's on the DC side when investing small sums 18 year's ago in something that will grow it.

I vaguely remember the child trust fund stuff when it came out.
It was confusing and not easy to understand.

I think if it could ever be done again it should be whittled down to one page with a short paragraph and graph for each of bank interest rates and stocks ISA.

With an illustration of what each would be worth after 18 with basic adding to it, something realistically do able!

I don't remember what was sent TBH, it was a long time ago! I was also trying to leave an abusive relationship at the time, so a CTF that would sort itself out if I left it was not exactly my highest priority!

I did nothing too for my DD too. I don't understand how come some of you have a fund of more than the initial investment, ie, £800+ in the same situation? I just checked my last statement in 2015 and it's only worth £250+.

Sorry Bertie I just saw your reply to z.

I'm also doing the savings account but also show DC their investments and i talk about why I chose them.
We look at the companies in them like telsa, Apple, Unilever.
I talk about whether they are strong companies, what would happen if telsa cars suddenly went badly wrong after ten years?
Would that affect us if we only own shires through an index fund. What would happen if telsa did fail and would it necessarily affect us?

In their Bank savings, they can divide the money into pots, eg gaming, sweets and they manage their money that way as well.

This is the precursor to their cash ISA which is solely to use for car/lesson and living ( travel) supporting themselves during an apprenticeship etc.

Then they have the larger sum in a stocks ISA and it's this one i want them to know exactly how to manage by training them on all the others.

They will clearly see in their little bank account they have pretty much zero interest.

It was 1.25 % on their cash ISA I think that's gone up a little now.

And between 20% and 35 % on their stocks ISA and the difference between the different fund's/trackers within them.

@BobaTea

Because some people invested it into stock and shares.

If two people had 250 and one put it into cash interest bank account it won't have grown much at all beyond the 250.

If someone invested that into a reasonably OK stock and share fund.... it would have grown by far more.

That's without adding a penny more.

I did nothing with them because not dealing with important things for years is one of my super powers. I missed the deadline to choose my own so they automatically went into a stocks and shares provider.
DC2 turned 18 recently, I think he had about £700. DC3 is twelve, he got less in the first place and has about £300 now.
Thankfully we're in a far better financial position than we were then and all four DC have trust funds that are managed by our FA, it was him who flagged up DC2 was turning 18 and would have a CTF I'd completely forgotten about it.

I put my kids into Asda fund. Kids are 15 and 16. They’ve made about £34 when I checked last year 😂

We had ours in stocks and shares isa and add 50 each a month, (wasn't always 50 for the oldest but has been for a good few years.)

15 year olds was at 15.5k until a few months ago now it's at 13.5k

Same with the 12 year old it was 11k now it's 9k.

I’ve just logged on. My children were born in 2006 and 2007. They got £250. I know some got £500. We put it into Asda (it’s since changed). The funds are worth £350 (roughly). Can’t see it going up much more before my DD turns 18 . Seems Asda wasn’t a good one! It dropped right down to £140bat one point!

I put money in monthly via direct debit, sometimes it's a tenner, sometimes more. When she was a baby and people gave me money, I'd put it in there too

We had a surname change and 2 house moves since original set up and I had done nothing with my daughters fund. Called them in July which was 3 weeks before her 18th birthday, sent name change docs and they paid out a couple of weeks after her bday. Was worth just over £900.

Golden carp just move it , put it into another platform and a broader fund.

Those already invested with time to go don't worry.
Our biggest plunge was COVID, I specifically showed DC the plunge so they understand that's fine.
@BertieBotts

Please don't think I'm judging you.
If I say what happened to me at that time I would be instantly outed.

I was lucky in that df took on the research for me and and chose one of the suggested funds.

There was no way I could have done it back then either, mentally or financially.

He did it and it almost immediately went below 250 and then went to 800 ish a few year's later.
However, when the government allowed people to move it , we moved it to a far easier to access provider and I was then in a position to learn more about it. .

Unfortunately at the time it was all confusing to people who didn't know whatto do.

We were able to put some inheritance in there.

But the key point is...learn about it now!
Vanguard Is an excellent places to start reading, short and everything there.

It's never too late!

But that's the difference in growth.

@BertieBotts

S&S ISAs and JISAs can make such a difference to family finances that it really is worth sitting down with MSE and a cup of tea to find out a bit more about it.

Using the car analogy - it’s less about learning about sports cars, more discovering your current car or bike has more than one gear. Only saving in cash bank accounts is just like driving everywhere in first gear.

It’s a common myth that you have to be loaded to invest in shares. In fact some providers will let you open a JISA with £1 and contribute as little as £10 a month, with no platform fee.

@BobaTea Who is your DC's plan with?

@PinkPalaceinthesky , with Barclay's.